THE great-great-grandparents of drama -- the ancient Greek and Roman playwrights -- have a permanent new home at the Getty Villa museum near Malibu, where they will live off the largesse of the multibillion-dollar J. Paul Getty Trust and see how much noise, figuratively speaking, they can still make after two millennia or more.
The villa, which reopened in January as the repository for the Getty Museum's collections of Greek, Etruscan and Roman art, aims now to foster fresh takes on the texts, tales and themes of Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plautus and the rest of their decisively influential clan. Like a newborn Athena popping full-grown and fully armed from the cranium of daddy Zeus, the program debuts as the only amply funded (a first-year production budget of more than $350,000), professionally acted initiative in the English-speaking world dedicated to the annual staging of the ancients.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday August 30, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
'Hippolytos': An article in Sunday's Calendar section about the theater program at the Getty Villa gave an incorrect name for the choreographer of its production of "Hippolytos." Her name is Tamica Washington-Miller, not Tamika Washington.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday August 31, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 45 words Type of Material: Correction
'Hippolytos': An article in the Sunday Calendar section said Fran Bennett, a cast member in "Hippolytos" at the Getty Villa, heads the performance program at CalArts. She is a teacher of voice at the school and formerly was head of acting and director of performance.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday September 03, 2006 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
"Hippolytos" actress: An article last Sunday incorrectly said Fran Bennett, a cast member in "Hippolytos" at the Getty Villa, heads the performance program at CalArts. She is a teacher of voice at the school and formerly was head of acting/director of performance.
It was launched this year with three experimental workshop presentations in the villa's 250-seat indoor auditorium, each a radical reworking or futuristic updating of a Greek comedy or myth created by L.A. theater artists at the Getty's invitation. Now comes Euripides' "Hippolytos," the first full production in the 450-seat outdoor theater.
The aim in this outdoor space inspired by ancient theaters -- including much larger ones in the Greek cities of Epidaurus and Delphi that continue to host festivals of classical Greek drama -- is to stick closely to the original plays. Unlike the anything-goes indoor workshops, the productions will aim for an ancient or timeless feel. The seldom-seen "Hippolytos," in a new translation by Anne Carson, a Canadian poet, scholar and MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" winner, concerns an austere, fanatically celibate young hunter whose spurning of his own sexuality and his stepmother Phaidra's illicit advances ends badly for both.
In ancient lore, the power of the Olympian gods to do as they pleased bumped up against limits imposed by a higher order of things called \o7moira, \f7or fate. It's the villa's fate to be surrounded by wealthy, well-organized neighbors who sued to have the outdoor theater excluded from the museum's $275-million renovation and expansion, for fear of traffic jams and nighttime noise. Although the courts ruled in favor of the Getty Trust in a battle that delayed the project more than three years, the villa's outdoor productions will be governed by strict conditions set by the city.
